


Lost

by SplashofMagicX



Category: K-pop, Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Asthma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Lee Felix (Stray Kids)-centric, Panic Attacks, Suspense, scared Felix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 06:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17658053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SplashofMagicX/pseuds/SplashofMagicX
Summary: When Felix receives the usual note from his friends detailing the time and place of their next weekend adventure, he thinks nothing of it. The sight that awaits him when he arrives, however, is not at all what he expected, and he soon begins to fear for his very life.





	Lost

Felix shivered in the frigid winter air and pulled his jacket more tightly to his thin frame as he glanced around the deserted grounds of the abandoned hospital. Why had Chan wanted the group to meet _here_ , of all places? Why couldn’t they meet up at the park or the old, drained public pool again?

He slipped the note from his front jacket pocket, checking the instructions once again despite knowing that he had read the Korean correctly. Although he didn’t recognize the handwriting, he assumed Chan had gotten one of their other friends to write it for him. They liked to think the notes were more suited to their weekend adventures than a regular text message.

Still, he thought with another glance up at the dilapidated building, they could have picked a better spot. He shivered again, though this time it had nothing to do with the cold. With a sigh, he decided to head inside to wait in the lobby as the note had instructed. At least it would allow him to escape from the cold.

As he stepped closer, the aged hospital looming over him, he couldn’t help but feel a hint of doubt. If they were supposed to meet in a few minutes, where was everyone else? And again, why _here_?

But Chan had sent the note, so that meant they would be here. Maybe they were already inside waiting for him. He couldn’t really tell because all the windows were boarded up and probably too grimy to see through anyway.

After another glance around the deserted grounds, Felix grasped the icy metal handle of the main door with a grimace, wishing he had worn gloves or at least brought some disinfectant. The amount of grime on the outside of the building was almost impressive. He didn’t want to imagine what the inside would be like.

As the door screeched open and he was hit with the stale scent of unfiltered air, he saw that his best guess wasn’t far off. Upon taking a step into the hospital, he noticed the shape of overturned waiting room chairs, some twisted into somehow aggressive shapes or completely broken apart. His eyes soon adjusted to the meager amount of light let in by the open door, revealing the fragmented pieces of the soft ceiling tiles littering the floor. Dirt and debris coated the ground and everything else he could see. Felix propped the door open behind him with a heavy piece of brick he found nearby, not wanting to lose the only source of light he had.

He swallowed down his nervousness at the complete and utter silence that echoed around him. He was too far from any common roads for the noise of traffic to filter in, and the buildings nearby had seemed just as abandoned as the hospital itself. “C-Chan?” he called out as he took a few more careful steps into the entrance hall. Nothing. “Guys?” He tried again, hoping he didn’t sound like a whiny child but too scared to just stand there in silence.

Sniffling a bit as the dust in the air began to clog up his nose, Felix stepped farther into the entrance hall, passing the reception counter and coming to a stop by a row of mostly-intact chairs. Where was everyone?

“Chan?” His voice echoed around the waiting area, but it was otherwise silent. The sound of nothingness echoed all around him.

And then something shuffled behind him, and he swung around to face whatever awaited him in the dark.

It was a person, backlit by the light from the door they stood in front of. He couldn’t make out any of their features but felt relief settle his previously racing heart. “Chan? You scared me!” he called out with a quiet laugh. “Where is everyone?”

But Chan said nothing. He took a few steps toward Felix, and then someone appeared behind him and kicked the brick away from the door. Felix gasped as the door swung closed and they were plunged into darkness. He shuffled back a few steps, debris shifting around his feet.

“C-Chan? What—?” Felix’s voice came out strangled as his heart beat against the walls of his chest. Once his eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting creeping in from between the cracks of the boarded windows, he saw that Chan had stopped just past the doors.

“Chan’s not here right now,” the man growled out past the dark mask that covered his mouth. Felix gasped at the unfamiliar voice. This definitely wasn’t one of his friends.

Felix swallowed down his panic and opened his mouth to speak. “W-Who—?”

The man cut him off with a harsh laugh. “I’ll give you a running start, kid, but you have to be fast.” As Felix watched in confusion, the man bent down to pick up what looked like the metal leg of a broken chair.

What was he talking about? What the hell was going on? Where were Chan and the others? His breath caught in his throat. “W-What are you—?”

Felix was interrupted once again. This time, the man began counting down from twenty and then stopped for a second, lightly swinging the metal chair leg. “You better get moving, or you’re going to make a pretty easy target. I’m already at eighteen.”

Felix stumbled back a step and almost tripped over the chair behind him as the guy continued his countdown, hitting the metal leg against the ground to punctuate each number. Heart pounding wildly in his chest, he took off down the hallway to his right as he heard the man reach fifteen.

The man’s voice followed him as he ran. His knockoff Converse crunched on broken tiles and small debris, but he didn’t slow down. At the end of the hallway, he skidded to a stop, turned right, and continued running.

“Ten!” the man shouted, his voice echoing eerily through the hallways of the previously empty building. Felix could hardly hear him over the blood pounding in his ears. What the hell was happening? His heart stuttered in his chest and his breathing grew ragged as he ran. Had the man hurt Chan and the others? How had he known they would be here? Were the others okay?

Upon reaching the end of the hallway, Felix frantically searched for any clue about which way to go. The signs were all too advanced for him—medical terms in English were hard enough, but in Korean, they were nearly impossible for him to understand. For the umpteenth time since he had arrived in Korea all those months ago, he cursed his younger self for not taking more of an interest in the language his parents had spoken fluently. 

“Eight!” The man’s voice echoed through the halls with a hint of finality to it. Oh god, what would the man do if he found him? Would he die all alone here, leaving his aunt without any clue as to his whereabouts?

Felix gasped for air as he swiveled his head from side to side. And then to his left, there was a door with the universal sign for stairs. He wrenched at the handle, and it creaked and groaned its way open. The man had surely heard that, but there wasn’t much he could do.

As he slipped inside and allowed the door to grind shut behind him, he heard the man reach six, and he turned to sprint up the stairs. He stumbled a bit at the landing but quickly regained his balance and continued up. But when he pulled at the door leading to the second floor, it wouldn’t budge, as if the hinges were rusted shut. Or maybe he was just too weak to pull it open. A second attempt ended in vain.

He couldn’t hear anything over his heartbeat, the sound almost deafening, but the man must be near the end of his countdown now. Without wasting another second, he ran up the next flight of stairs, hoping the third floor door would open for him.

As he climbed the stairs frantically, his breath came in gasping heaves. The cold weather, combined with the exertion of running, only added to strain his lungs were already feeling from the extraordinary amount of dust and other particles in the air. It would all come together to cause what he was sure would be the worst asthma attack he had had in a long time.

He finally reached the door and wrenched at the handle. The relief that settled over him when it opened was incomparable, though it was soon replaced with disgust at the mildewy stench that invaded his senses as soon as he entered the third floor. Something had rotted away up here, but he didn’t have time to contemplate what he might find.

As he sprinted down the decrepit hallway that paralleled his earlier path two floors down, he considered his options. He didn’t have his inhaler with him—a stupid oversight on his part—and with the continuous running, he was sure the man would be able to hear his breathing from a mile away. Maybe if he could find somewhere to hide and call for help before the man got too close…

After rounding the corner into the main hallway of what looked like a patient ward, he skimmed the line of doors for something promising. Once he was a good distance down the hallway, he slipped into a room through a half-open door and searched frantically for a place to hide. The lock on the door looked too rusted to withstand any assault, so he couldn’t just lock himself inside. A dark corner wasn’t secure enough. Perhaps he could squish himself inside the small cabinet?

But as he opened the cabinet door and saw that it was full of medical supplies, he heard the crash of a door slamming violently into a wall. Judging from the volume, it had to have been the stairwell door. The man was getting close.

Out of options, Felix gasped and swung his head around. The space under the dust-covered bed would have to be good enough. He shoved himself underneath and to the back corner, hoping that his shaking form would be hidden well enough by the overturned chairs and medical equipment that surrounded the bed. The dust settled around him and clogged his nose. The earthy taste of it coated the inside of his mouth. He wheezed and coughed almost silently in an attempt to clear his airways.

“Where are you, kid?” the man called out tauntingly, his voice carrying down the otherwise silent halls. He must have been at the end of the hallway by now.

Felix concentrated on taking deep breaths through his open mouth, hoping he could take in enough air to quiet his wheezing before the man heard him and it was all over.

His pounding heart only beat more quickly when he heard the screech of a door down the hallway being shoved open. It was almost silent for a while, presumably as the man searched the room for him.

Any further attempts from Felix to stifle his breathing were met with resistance from his overworked lungs and dust-filled airway. As another door screeched open, he quickly but silently drew out his phone from the front pocket of his jeans, thankful it hadn’t fallen out during his mad dash down the hallways.

The light from the screen lit up the gloom, blinding his eyes that had adjusted to the darkness of the hospital. Heart pounding out of fear that the man would be able to see the light shining out from the doorway, Felix rushed to turn the brightness all the way down. He thanked his lucky stars that he had a tendency to leave his phone on silent when he saw the two missed calls from Chan and thirteen unread messages in their group chat.

When he heard crunching footsteps in the hallway, he quickly hid the screen against his chest and waited with bated breath until another door screeched open. He was getting closer, and it was only a matter of time before he found Felix. The air was squeezing through his windpipe into his lungs now. It took all his will power to kill the coughs that threatened to rise up out of his chest.

With shaking hands, Felix pulled the phone away and clicked on the last message to the group chat. ‘ _Felix, did you forget that we were hanging out today?_ ’ Chan had written in English, probably worried about Felix feeling overwhelmed by all the Korean again.

His eyes burned at the thought of Chan and the others—the closest group of friends he had ever had, despite only knowing them for half a year. What if he never saw them again? They must have been hurt by the man who was chasing him.

But when he realized that the message had been sent only a few minutes ago, a gasp rose unbidden, and he froze, hoping the man hadn’t overheard him. When he heard only silence and the distant scraping of the man’s unhurried search through another room, he attempted to type out a message to his friends, unwilling to make any phone calls for fear of the man hearing his voice.

He typed in English and sent it without reading. His shaking fingers had jumbled the words together and pressed the wrong keys so that it was barely legible as the ‘ _Are you okay?_ ’ he had intended to write.

Still, Chan responded within seconds—still in English, thankfully. ‘ _What do you mean? We’re fine? We’re at the park, where are you?_ ’ At the park? Felix frowned in confusion. But the note had said to meet them here at the hospital.

He started to type out that very explanation when another door screeched open, making his heart jump into his already inflamed throat. As he concentrated on his ragged breathing, he tried to type as much of an explanation as possible. ‘ _got note,gotu oldhosptl.none here_ ’ his shaking fingers nudged the send button before he could finish.

‘ _Youre at the old hospital? The abandoned one near the river?_ ’ Chan’s response was almost immediate.

“Where you at?” the man called again, nearly causing Felix to drop his phone in surprise. He heard the man smacking the metal chair leg against the floor as he walked, and Felix froze, hoping he would continue searching the other rooms before moving closer.

It seemed luck was on his side this one time because the man yanked open another door instead of continuing on toward Felix.

He hurried to respond to Chan’s message, fingers trembling. ‘ _yes,inhosp, hidig,crzyguy chasig md,cnt brthe_ ’

His heart felt as if it would give out any minute from beating so quickly for such an extended period of time. Although he was lying motionless on the gritty tile, the adrenaline was racing through his veins. Each breath still struggled to drag itself through his inflamed airway.

‘ _pls hlp_ ’ he sent as he watched Chan’s speech bubble appear and disappear for a few seconds. ‘ _im soscard.hellfnd md_ ’ He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t even call the police because he was too scared to speak, and he didn’t think he could even explain what was happening in Korean anyway.

Another door screeched open as Chan’s message appeared on his screen. ‘ _On our wy, callng police. Sty hidden._ ’

But the man was getting closer and closer, the screeching of the doors increasing in volume. There couldn’t be many rooms between them now. He had to move somewhere. Maybe while the man was searching one of the rooms, Felix could sneak down the hallway and hide in another room for a moment. But if he was seen, the man would chase him, and Felix wasn’t sure how much longer his lungs would hold out. A loud crash rang out in a room down the hall, and Felix knew the man was losing his patience trying to find him.

‘ _gota mov.hescomng_ ’ he typed out before sliding the phone back into his pocket and slowly shuffling out from under the bed, careful not to make any noise on shifting debris.

“I’ll find you soon enough!” the man called out, stealing what little breath Felix had left in his lungs. He was so close, maybe only a few doors down now.

As another door screeched open, Felix made for the door of his own room but then lost his courage at the last minute and stood just inside the room. The next door. He would wait for the man to enter the next room. As the seconds passed, he stood silently waiting with a shaking, dust-covered hand held to his chest and the other covering his mouth to muffle his wheezing breaths. Soon enough, another loud screech rang out, and Felix hesitantly peeked around the corner toward the hallway he had run down earlier. Nothing.

He sneaked quietly out of the door and picked his way around the debris slowly, hoping to keep the noise to a minimum. After progressing only a few short meters toward the next door, a loud bang from one of the rooms behind him startled him so badly that he couldn’t help but run, certain the man had seen him and was giving chase.

Mere seconds passed before the man screamed, “Found you!” and Felix could hear his heavy footsteps following after him.

His own feet pounded against the debris-ridden floor, crunching loudly as he went. He ran past a branching hallway to his left and headed for the opposite end of the building, hoping it was a mirror reflection of the side he had come from. There would probably be another stairwell there, right?

If he could get downstairs and then run back to the entrance, he could get out. But there was someone else outside, wasn’t there? The person who had kicked the brick away from the door…

He kept running for the staircase regardless, not knowing where else to go. He could hardly breathe now, his lungs working too hard but receiving almost nothing in return. The sounds of his own footsteps and those of the man chasing him were drowned out by the ringing in his ears and the blood pounding against his eardrums. He didn’t dare to look behind him and see how close the man was though, too scared of what he would find.

He was thankful when he saw that there was, in fact, a door leading to another stairwell and almost cried with relief as it swung open without much resistance when he pulled on the handle. A split-second glimpse of the stairwell indisputably revealed that his would-be attacker wasn’t alone. The second man, wearing a black face mask, was climbing the stairs up toward him, albeit at a slow pace. That was all it took for Felix’s heart to stutter and for him to switch his path up toward the fourth floor instead of down toward freedom.

Breath wheezing through his airway, Felix pushed himself up the stairs two at a time, barely feeling the strain in his muscles in his desperation to get away from the two people following him. If they caught him, he was dead.

He heard the stairwell door below him slam into a wall just as he tugged the fourth floor door open. The sound of the angry shouting that filled the stairwell sent Felix racing through the open door before quickly pulling it shut behind him. They would probably split up and come from each side. He took off running down the hallway. Although the thought panicked him, he knew he had nowhere else to run. He would have to find another hiding place—perhaps in the branching hallway—and hope for the best.

As he turned the corner into the main hallway, just a floor up from where he had been hiding before, he heard the just-closed stairwell door open with a crash. He didn’t stop to look, but pushed himself harder. As soon as he reached the branching hallway, he turned, sliding on the debris. He kept running, passing a few of the half-open doors until he found one halfway down the hallway and slipped inside.

Different from the patient rooms downstairs, this one held a couch, a few cabinets, chairs, and two desks at the far end. He rushed to the farthest desk and dragged the desk chair back toward the wall, thankful for the rotted carpeting that muffled the noise he was making. As soon as the chair was free, he dropped to his knees and crawled underneath. His hiding spot faced away from the doors, and he desperately hoped that would be enough to save him, but he knew the men chasing him would be able to hear his gasping, wheezing breaths when they got closer.

Silently, he slid his phone from his pocket once again and gripped it as tightly as his trembling fingers would allow. He could hear one of the men swearing in the hallway as he shoved open a door and searched the room. His cursing and the noises he was making while he searched were probably the only things keeping him from hearing Felix.

He glanced down at his phone screen, noticing the cluster of new messages in the group chat, all from Chan.

‘ _can u lock yrself in aroom?_ ’

‘ _Felix?_ ’

‘ _can u hide fr 10mre min?_ ’

‘ _Felix, pls_ ’

‘ _ru ok?_ ’

‘ _almst there,pls be ok_ ’

Felix’s entire body was shaking with the effort of each breath. His fingers trembled as he typed a shaky response to his friend, ‘ _2guyss,hidig_ ’, and hit send just as another door opened nearby. If he didn’t get out of this room, they would find him. He was going to die.

His phone screen lit up with another response. ‘ _where?almst thre_ ’

‘ _4flr,hes cmin,cnt wait_ ’ Felix sent as another door screeched open. He had to get out now, or the other guy would show up, and then he wouldn’t stand a chance. If he could get past this guy, he could run back the way he had come and hopefully find his way outside before the other caught him. If not...

Felix ignored the speech bubble that indicated Chan was typing a message and typed out his own. ‘ _lve u gys somch_ ’ He hit send and shoved the phone back into his pocket before he could change his mind. Then, he scooted out from under the desk as quietly as he could and crept toward the door. As soon as he heard the guy go back into the hallway, he covered his mouth with his hand, hoping his ragged attempts at breathing weren’t audible.

Just after hearing another door screech open, he crept into the hallway and began his dash without looking back, hoping he could get a good head start before the other man sprang into action. His plan worked well until he came to the corner and his foot slipped on some debris.

And then he was on his back on the ground, lungs empty of any last trace of air he had had left and the back of his head smarting from where it had probably slammed into the floor. His vision swam, and his body ached, but the terror was still fresh in his mind. It only heightened when the man he had passed yelled something.

Felix scrambled to sit up and turn himself around, to face the man who had been chasing him. Maybe he could plead with him to spare his life. But as he turned, he saw the first man coming up the other side of the main hallway.

Breath stolen and head aching, Felix did his best to crawl backward as quickly as he could down the hallway that would have granted him freedom. He couldn’t even stand now though—his legs felt as stable as a newborn fawn’s.

As he stared up at the two men, wide eyes shifting rapidly between them, he noticed his vision darkening. His lungs ached with the need for air. Then there was shouting, but not at him. “What the fuck, man? He can’t breathe!” The newcomer had turned to the first man and was shoving a finger into his chest before they both turned to look at him.

Felix shook with the effort of gasping for breath that wouldn’t come and scooted numbly along, attempting to get away from them as quickly as he could. Although it would do him no good, he couldn’t help but try anyway.

And then the newcomer pulled his face mask down and started toward him with his hands raised calmly in front of his chest. What was he doing? “Hey, kid, I’m just going to try to help you, okay?” he spoke slowly, clearly.

Help him? He wanted to kill him! Felix’s entire body convulsed with desperation for oxygen, but he couldn’t stop moving backward with numb hands scrabbling for purchase on the debris-ridden floor. As the man stepped closer and closer, Felix’s heart reached a fevered pitch, fluttering in his chest like a hummingbird.

And then there was screaming from behind him, and he didn’t know what was being said, but the guy backed away with his hands still in the air. Felix was dimly aware of the other guy putting his metal chair leg on the ground, but he didn’t hear it hit.

His arms finally gave out, and his back and head made contact with the floor once again, though he could barely feel it through the pain in his chest. All he could make out was the darkened ceiling, void of almost all its tiles.

But then there was a warm, gentle hand on his face, and another hand brushing at his bleached hair. A face blocked his view of the ceiling. “Felix! Felix, can you hear me?” It was Chan—for real this time. Felix felt something wet and warm slip from his eyes and slide down his temples. Then Chan was crying too and turning to talk to someone.

Before he could understand what was being said, Chan gently pushed something into his open mouth. “I’ll push, you breathe,” he said slowly in English. And the dust that was coating the inside of his mouth was joined by a disgusting but familiar powdery taste—the medication from his extra rescue inhaler that Chan had insisted on carrying around.

When nothing happened, Chan pushed it again, waited for a moment, and then pushed once more for good measure. Although nothing seemed to happen at first, Felix’s airways gradually opened up—just a little. Never before had oxygen tasted so sweet, even as tainted as the hospital air was. There was still barely anything entering his lungs, but he felt alive again. The darkness at the edge of his vision was fading, and sound was filtering back in. Screams reverberated around the space surrounding him, and Felix attempted to raise his head, confused about who would be yelling.

Chan must have noticed his attempts to move because he placed a gentle hand on Felix’s chest and held him down. Felix met his warm brown eyes and couldn’t help but start crying harder at the concern he saw there. This time, after he struggled to pull himself into a sitting position, Chan wrapped a gentle arm around his back to hold him up. There was another hand too, and Felix turned to see Changbin at his left side.

The relief he felt upon seeing the two of them was unbelievable, settling like a blanket over his shoulders and slowly draining the terror from his mind. The tears poured down his cheeks more quickly as he struggled to draw in deep breaths. The next thing he knew, he was being pulled into Chan’s chest, and the comforting but subtle scent of citrus and mint washed over him. The older boy rubbed his back gently and ran a hand through his hair. After Felix winced in pain, Chan was careful to keep his hands away from the back of his head.

“How are you feeling?” Changbin asked quietly from his right.

Before he could answer, the screaming reached a new high, and Felix jerked his head toward the source of the noise to see something he would never have expected. Woojin was screaming and gesticulating wildly at the two guys who had been chasing him while Jisung held him back by the arm—a role reversal if he ever saw one. Hyunjin and Minho stood between the two groups, seemingly torn between joining Chan and Changbin at Felix’s side or acting as back up for Woojin and Jisung.

“What the _fuck_ were you thinking, you pieces of _shit_?!” Hearing that kind of language from Woojin would have been enough to surprise them all into silence on a normal day, but no one else seemed phased. Felix just sat there in shock, dragging in as much air as possible while Chan and Changbin rubbed his back.

Woojin’s shouts cut off suddenly before being replaced with a quieter voice from the second guy who had been chasing him. “We just wanted to scare him. We weren’t—”

His words were cut off when the screaming resumed—Woojin’s and Jisung’s voices overlapping too much to make out what was being said.

Now that Felix got a better look at the two guys, they seemed familiar somehow. They were young, probably around his age. Although it was still hard to see minute details in the dark hallway, he knew he had definitely seen their faces before. Maybe he knew them from school?

Air rasped through his throat as he stared at them. Weren’t they in his Chemistry class? He squinted for a clearer look. He grimaced when his attempts led to a sharp pain in his head. Yeah, they were the ones who had messed with his Chemistry experiment a month ago—Dohyun and Minkyu. He had informed the teacher afterward, unwilling to be docked points for someone else’s meddling.

“Felix?” Changbin prompted, tone wavering worriedly.

Felix continued to gaze at the two boys in confusion. They said they had just wanted to scare him… Had they set this whole thing up as some sort of prank? Had it all been some form of payback for him getting them into trouble with the teacher?

Chan called his name and only continued speaking once the younger boy turned to face him. “How are you feeling now?” He bent slightly to meet Felix’s eyes.

Felix concentrated for a moment, unsure. His heart was still racing, and his head was pounding now that he had taken in some oxygen. “I—” He coughed, barely expelling anything when he did. “I don’t—” He panicked as he felt his lungs tightening again. His usual dosage of medicine could only do so much after the strength of the attack he had had, especially when dust was still coating his clothing and dancing through the air around them. “Need—” he broke off into a dry coughing fit again and reached out blindly for Chan, who seemed to know just what he was searching for.

His friend brought the inhaler back to his lips and instructed him to inhale as he pushed on the canister. Felix breathed in and held his breath for as long as he was able and then repeated the process when Chan gave him another puff. The dosage was a bit more helpful this time, taking only half a minute to clear his airways enough for him to cough deeply, his body shaking with the force of it.

“—sit the _fuck_ down until the police get here to deal with you!” Woojin was screaming again, and then it was silent for a few moments before a loud shouting came from both ends of the main hallway. Felix flinched at the new assault to his ears and curled into Chan as he tried to keep his breathing as steady as he could.

“Put any weapons on the ground and get on your knees!” a new voice commanded. Felix shook at the threatening tone and kept his wide-eyed gaze on his friends, but Chan just held him more tightly and kept rubbing at his hair.

Felix saw Woojin and Jisung doing as they had been ordered and kneeling in the dirt and grime of the hallway. In just seconds, they were surrounded by police officers with flashlights and stun guns.

“Sir,” Chan spoke up, his voice vibrating in his chest where Felix had rested his head. The familiar cadence of his friend’s Korean was like music to Felix’s ears. “I’m the one who called you. I’m Bang Chan,” he explained over the sounds of his friends moving around. “I’m sorry, but my friend needs an ambulance. He had a severe asthma attack, and he’s having trouble focusing.”

“He hit his head,” a voice piped up before the officers could say anything. Felix glanced up to see his second pursuer—Minkyu.

“Oh, so scaring him to death wasn’t enough for you?!” came Woojin’s outraged voice, the noise ringing out in the hallway. “You had to hit him in the head too?!”

“We didn’t hit him!” Dohyun called out—his voice sent shivers down Felix’s spine. Earlier, that same voice had directed him to start running if he wanted to live. “He fell and hit his head on the floor!” Felix’s heartbeat stuttered as the older boy spoke.

“Because you were chasing him with a metal pole and trying to kill him!” Jisung had joined the fray, voice raised in anger.

“Alright, everyone be quiet for a minute,” the officer closest to Jisung and Minho commanded, shouting to be heard over the protests of the group of teenagers. “Let’s get your friend an ambulance, and we can talk about this outside. We’ll escort you all down, so don’t get any funny ideas about running away,” he warned with a side-eye glance at the two boys who had been the cause of all this.

Someone stepped closer to Felix, Chan, and Changbin, debris crackling under their shoes. Felix shivered. “Has he spoken at all?” asked an unfamiliar voice from behind him, probably belonging to one of the officers.

“He’s barely said anything,” Changbin answered quietly but politely. His hand was warm and comforting against Felix’s back.

“Felix?” Chan called out, twisting to look the younger boy in the eyes.

Felix, still concentrating on keeping his breathing under control, hummed in response before whispering out a broken “Yeah?” and being rewarded with a small smile from Chan.

“Are you okay to walk?” the same officer asked slowly, perhaps catching on to the fact that Felix was having trouble focusing at the moment.

“I-I don’t know,” Felix gasped out before releasing a few hacking coughs into Chan’s chest. He would probably feel bad about that later, but it didn’t even register at the moment.

“Maybe it’s best to stay here until the paramedics come,” another voice suggested. “Depending on his injuries, it might not be safe to move him.”

The thought of being left behind sent a jolt of fear through Felix. He was so close to getting out of this horrible place, back out into the sunlight. “No,” he gasped out in English, reverting to his default language. He reached up to grasp at Chan’s sweatshirt with shaking hands, leaving behind trails of dark gray and brown on the previously white material. “I want out. Please don’t make me stay,” he begged Chan, tears rolling down his cheeks again.

“We’re not making you stay, Felix,” Chan reassured him calmly, keeping eye contact with the younger boy as they conversed in English. “We just want to make sure it’s safe to move you. We’ll stay with you though, okay?”

“I can—” he coughed again, interrupting himself. “I can do it, it’s fine,” he tried to plead with them in Korean this time. He couldn’t stand to spend another moment in this place.

“He _did_ sit up on his own,” Changbin mentioned from beside him. Felix nodded shakily, desperate for the others to accept Changbin’s statement.  

“Well, if he could sit up on his own, it’s safe to move him at least. He’ll probably need some help walking though,” one of the officers acquiesced. “Or a piggy-back ride, if possible,” he amended after a glance at Felix’s trembling hands and legs.

“Help me get him up, and I can carry him,” Chan said to Changbin, and the two started to stand while supporting Felix with help from the officer. His legs shook underneath him, and he fell gracelessly onto Chan’s back when the other crouched down in front of him. Never had he been more thankful that his friend practically towered over his own smaller frame.

Felix concentrated on breathing and closed his eyes as the group walked, not wanting to see any more of the inside of this hospital than he already had. He already knew he would be having nightmares about this for months, if his experience with horror movies was any indication. His breathing hitched.  

He was alive though. His friends had come to save him. It had all been some dumb prank by his classmates—or at least, that’s what he assumed. He guessed he had never actually been in any real danger except from that posed by his own body. Whether or not he felt comforted by that thought… Well, that was something he could worry about later.

“Felix?” Chan’s voice and a light tap against his thigh brought him back to the present. “Don’t fall asleep or anything, okay?”

Felix hummed in response. “—won’t,” he mumbled halfheartedly, only promising such a thing because it was Chan asking.

And then suddenly there was light burning red through his eyelids and the fresh, crisp scent of winter filling his nose. His eyelids flew open and his eyes immediately began to water, half from the pain that shot though his head at the blinding light, and half from the utter relief at feeling sunlight again after feeling so sure that he would die in that wretched hospital.

“You okay?” Chan asked worriedly when he sniffled. “Does your head hurt?”

Felix nodded gently but said, “I’m just happy,” his voice cracking on the last word. He choked out a “Th-Tha-ank you, Ch-Chan” as tears rolled down his cheeks once again.

“You don’t need to thank me. I just did what any friend would do—what any of us would have done for you,” Chan patted Felix’s thigh where it was gripped around his waist, and the younger boy couldn’t keep the tears from flowing. “We’re just so happy you’re safe.”

Just then, a shout of “Felix!” came from his left, and then he had a teary eyeful of Jeongin and Seungmin racing up to them, only to be stopped by Hyunjin and Minho as they explained that Felix would be okay but that he needed to go to the hospital. Felix shuddered at the thought. That phrase had taken on a whole new meaning for him.

The rest of the day was a blur of questions, ambulance rides, and medical checks. All the boys had visited him at the hospital—only a few at a time, as per hospital regulations. Chan himself had called Felix’s aunt and explained the situation in detail when she arrived, bringing fresh clothes for Felix with her.

Once the doctors discovered that the confusion Felix had felt was more a side effect of the asthma attack and resulting panic attack rather than the head wound, he was allowed to get cleaned up with supervision. He wasted no time showering off the grime of the old hospital and washing his hair no less than three times, careful of the lump on the back of his head. Soon after his condition was deemed stable, he was released with instructions on what to do if he felt any worse.

Although his aunt insisted that he rest when they arrived home, he begged her to let the other boys come over and keep him company. He didn’t think he could stand being in a quiet house with just the two of them. She must have sensed his desperation because she gave in far more quickly than normal.

As soon as the boys arrived, they crowded around the living room, taking up all the available furniture and parts of the floor too. Chan pulled Felix close and whispered how glad he was that the younger boy was safe.

As they others talked amongst themselves, keeping their volume down in an effort to spare Felix’s smarting head, Chan explained that the police had taken his two classmates into custody but that they would probably only be punished by the school and their own parents. The criminal justice system at its finest, Chan complained.

“My mom knows their parents though,” Chan told him with a more somber tone than Felix had ever heard him use. “They’re going to get what’s coming to them, don’t worry.”

Felix just settled back into Chan’s arms and nodded, not really caring about them at the moment. Within minutes, even though he was surrounded by the muted chaos of all his friends, he had drifted off to sleep with no nightmares in sight—at least for the time being.


End file.
